Saturday, May 08, 2010

Never confuse taking care of busyness with taking care of business.

I have a confession to make... something I'm notoriously guilty of... if you've ever asked me this question, you'll probably be able to guess my answer.

"How are you?"

What's my usual answer?

"Busy!"

Yup, busy... sometimes I mix it up and say "super busy" or "crazy busy" but that word... that busy busy word creeps in all the time?

Now why is that? Because somehow somewhere along the way I got to thinking that "busy" was a badge of honor... "busy" is popular, "busy" is productive and "busy" gets me out of doing other stuff that I don't want to do, cause y'know... "I'm busy".

But how productive is it really?

Of course I'd like to think that I'm busy taking care of all of the important business in my life. After all, I've had some pretty good results... and have had some truly amazing things happen that have brought great joy to my life... but!... it hasn't been all it's cracked up to be.

Some of the busy-ness has been just that, or better called busy-Mess... because the return I get just isn't worth the effort that went in.

So what to do?

For one, ask "is this worth it?" It might be hard to tell if it will be... and some things look more important than they really are... but if we all just ask that question at the beginning, the obvious NO's can be eliminated right off the bat.

If it has to get done, then ask "Do I have to do it?" It's quite possible that someone else can do it better than you can... and saving YOUR time is worth having someone else take care of it. For example, I once attended a Wealth Seminar where the speaker said "You're never going to get rich cleaning your own house" Her point was that someone else can take care of your cleaning while you take care of your business. (If you've ever seen my dust bunnies, you'd agree)

And finally, if it is worth doing, ask yourself, "Do I love doing it?" because something are worth doing, but they might not be worth it for you. Being a brain surgeon is certain a worthwhile cause, but do you want to do it?

So take a moment our of your busy schedule to think about everything I just said... see what fits and what doesn't, and go from there.

And, I know this note's been rather large, so I thank you for taking the time to read it all.